Comedy improv troupe takes on VPAT

It was a leap of faith Marcy Jarreau never doubted. Some may have thought she was leaping into boiling oil, sure. Not Jarreau.

So when she packed her bags in a tiny town in Louisiana and headed to New York City, it was with reckless abandon -- not unlike improv itself.

"I was ready to move," Jarreau said. "I wanted to move since I was 12 and I was doing improv since 14."

With most of her family's blessings, Jarreau took her ambition and secured a spot with the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre, a veritable improv school founded by Amy Pohler and a handful of other bright comedic performers.

Though New York was fast-paced "and expensive," Jarreau survived for nearly seven years "before I started getting the itch and was ready to move West. Better weather and more jobs."

And off to the Los Angeles branch of the UCB, where she packs her bags one more time -- but only for a four-city tour -- with a stop at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre on

Thursday.

"I don't get to travel too often," Jarreau said, still amazed at her rising position in the comedy

food chain.

"It's so amazing we get paid to do this at all," she said.

Devoted to writing and acting when the occasion appears, Jarreau doesn't get bogged down with the competition. Millions of others wanting to score big in show biz? Shhhhh.

"It would scare me if I thought about it too much," she said, preferring to acknowledge "the 10-year rule" that apparently states a performer needs 10 years to establish something in

Hollywood.

"I see friends having success with little things here and there, which is a stepping stone to something else," Jarreau said.

Never a stand-up comic, Jarreau said there's "something about the community" of improvisational comedy; of that team effort.

"It makes it easier just to survive," she said. "It's not a competition-based community. We're working together. People are really open to meeting you and figuring out what you're about. It's a very collaborative, exciting environment."

Jarreau recalled her first UCB appearance in New York City in a packed theater of 300.

"The excitement of energy when you have that many people waiting to see you and some are rooting for you," she said, mildly chuckling that "some are waiting for you to fail because they want

that spot."

It's difficult -- actually, impossible -- for Jarreau to watch other sketch comedy groups be it live or on TV without scrutiny.

"Sometimes I find myself laughing at the hiccups, because I know what they're going through. You empathize," Jarreau said. When what you're watching is live, it is analytical. 'What are they doing? 'How did they make that connection?'"

Every performance is different "and I think that's the most exciting part of it," Jarreau said. "You don't know what's going to happen. It does feel like a sport in a lot of ways. You hope you go play as well as you can. You pick up spots where someone's dropping the ball so everything seems seamless to the audience. When it works it feels great and feels like a bit of magic."

Jarreau laughed that "everyone in improv is about 28," though, at admittedly 31, "I'm not secretive about my age."

Jarreau's averaged two to six shows for about a decade, she said, and seeks that acting role "that I'll think, 'If I don't get this, I'll die.' In retrospect, it's fine if I don't get it. I think that's what drove me to writing."

Though claiming she's yet to sign an autograph, Jarreau has been publicly recognized.

"Which is weird, to be in Los Angeles where there's actually famous people," she said.